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Thursday, 20 August 2015

More of the Same

Trapping on Monday and Tuesday nights this week have yielded little of interest. Both sessions have been plagued by hoards of Large yellow Underwings, and once again the trap was invaded by a LYU predator, probably a bat, but on this occasion it managed to exit the trap because when I attended the trap at 5.30am there was no sign of it, only its droppings. Does anyone else have this problem?

Two micros are of interest, the first from the trap on Tuesday night:

I thought Acrobasis advenella, but both the reddish-brown colouration and the central black dots seem to be absent, it's a Christian Grey moth. can anyone suggest an alternative?

This one turned up in my tool shed this morning. There were two of them but one got away; not necessarily the same species, but they were fluttering around together. I shall keep a look out for the other.

I suspect that this is a Gelechid of the genus Caryocolum, probably C.blandella, but C.blandulella is very similar judging from the photos in Chris Manley, who mentions Carmarthen as one of two sources of the latter species, albeit on sand dunes which we don't have hereabouts! The photo of blandulella is attributed to Jon, so I suspect that he might know!

13 comments:

Hi Chris, just reply to your question about bats. I have bats in the garden and they swoop through and round my Buddlea bushes and just over the top of my head, chasing MY moths no doubt, but I've never had one in a trap. I have been plagued by LYU's recently and a few escaped into the kitchen, nightmare!

Well done again, Chris! Away from moths, please check your greater stitchwort patches for brown/blackish rust over the next month or so, as it`s seemingly quite scarce in Carms. Please take a photo if you find any.

You're probably right Dave, that's the advice on the UKMoths website too, but I can't do the necessary and unless someone volunteers the matter will remain unresolved. A pity if such a distinctive moth is unrecorded, the images available suggest that it's either C.blandella or C.blandulella, and the former seems much the more likely around here.

Dave, I've just seen your response, thank you for the offer. I still have the moth and will send it to you. However long it takes it'll probably be quicker than the alternative - I'm booked on a dissection course with Dave Grundy but it's not until next April!